Following an up and down start in the Tabo’s Tip-Off tournament last week, the Jefferson Dragons are looking for solid results out of this week’s games.
First off, they will travel today (Wednesday) to Phillips Arena in Atlanta to face North Hall.
Then, Jefferson will travel to Oconee County to face the Warriors Friday night. Tip-off is scheduled for 8:30 p.m.
The Dragons had originally been slated to face Commerce on that night, but that game has been rescheduled to Jan. 9.
Following a close 52-51 overtime loss to Eastside to open tournament play, the Dragons were looking for more positive results last Wednesday when they faced Salem in round two.
Things did not start off well for the Dragons, as they found themselves down 19-6 by one point in the first quarter. But Jefferson began to rally back, and by the end of the quarter, had come back 21-13.
“From that point on, I felt like for this early in the season we played as good as we can play,” said coach Bolling DuBose.
The Dragons would go on to outscore Salem 19-14 to make the score 35-32 at the half.
Jefferson again outscored Salem in the third quarter, 19-17, to make it a 52-51 game by the end of the quarter.
The Dragons would continue their surge in the fourth quarter. Tyler Bailey completed a three-point play with just over a minute left to tie the game. J.J. Damons then made two tip-ins on missed shots in the last minutes to put Jefferson ahead. The Dragons came away with a 74-70 victory.
“The great thing was I think our kids learned from that first game (last week against Eastside) and made some big plays in the last few minutes,” DuBose said. “In the last minute of the game, we had some defensive stops and had some kids come down and make some big offensive plays.
“I just thought our kids handled the pressure at the end of the game really well.”
Darius Minor led in scoring with 23 points. David Watson scored 15. J.J. Damons scored 10 points.
The win came as the Dragons are still dealing with some big missing players. Hoytez Damons is fighting an ankle injury that has him sidelined. Kyle Mosley was injured during the Salem game with a knee injury.
“We’re missing the two biggest kids we’ve got,” DuBose said. “I thought against Salem, with their size, our kids battled really hard.”
The win put the Dragons up against Franklin County to close out the tournament. Where the previous game against Salem had been a fast-paced game, the pairing against the Lions would prove to be the opposite as Franklin tried to control the tempo of the game.
DuBose said it was a physical game.
“For the first half, I didn’t think our kids did a good job of handling that.”
Jefferson found themselves trailing 23-16 at the half. By the end of the third quarter, they had closed the gap to 39-35.
But Franklin County jumped back out to a nine-point lead to start the fourth quarter, and would continue to control the game through the end, taking a 51-44 victory.
For more on this story, see Wednesday's edition of The Jackson Herald.
